Austin Capital Metro Tests Autonomous, Driver-Less Buses (Video)

AUSTIN, TX — Monday marked a brave new world in Austin mass transportation as the city's transit system launched testing of its autonomous buses — as in without human drivers — along downtown streets.

But alas, no passengers were included in the dry run, and the trial was limited to controlled conditions isolated on 3rd Street.

But still. Driver-less buses. That's pretty cool.

CapMetro officials alerted to the testing on Sunday. "Rides will not be offered during testing," sounding palpably if inadvertently kind of mean about it.

But come fall, residents will be able to hitch a robo-ride on the 15-passenger autonomous vehicles. But, as Austin Inno reported, even then the cutting-edge vehicles won't be truly autonomous as operators will be on board initially to monitor trips.

Detailed plans for the driver-less buses aren't available, but Austin Inno reports the city plans to run the robo-vehicles made by Easy Mile and Navya along a 1.2-mile route on 2nd Street, close to such points of interest as City Hall, the new public library and possibly up to the city's busiest stop at Republic Square.

Austin Inno goes on to speculate the futuristic robo-buses will likely roll out slowly (and even cautiously) over the course of the next year or so. But geeks are buoyed in knowing about past autonomous vehicle testing done locally, particularly by Google. That past experience may put the city on track for a fairly rapid roll-out of auto-pilot vehicles once all the kinks are ironed out, according to the website.

Somewhere, George Jetson is smiling.

If you're having trouble envisioning these buses of the future, check out the short yet vaguely spellbinding CapMetro video below:

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>>> Image via Capital Metro